Club and Cercle all square in the battle of Bruges

FC Bruges and neighbours Cercle drew 1-all in the city derby on Friday. In other action, vice-champions Standard de Liège were humiliated 5-2 by Walloon challengers and newcomers Moeskroen-Péruwelz.

Michaël Torfs

Sat 16 Aug 2014 12:17

The Bruges derby is always a tense match (photo). Five players received a yellow card warning before half-time. Club Brugge climbed ahead through in-form striker Nicolas Castillo of Chile on 29 minutes. Cercle struck back after the break via Junior Kabananga, with Castillo missing an excellent opportunity in closing time. FC Bruges lose precious points again, after drawing against Zulte Waregem last week.

Standard are adrift in the domestic competition. After suffering a home defeat against AA Gent last week, they were whipped by newly-promoted Moeskroen-Péruwelz in the Walloon derby, 5-2. The home team came 0-1 behind, but clawed back to make it 3-1 and 4-2. Tony Watt scored one for Standard, but this couldn't help his team much.

The new defeat confirms the calls of Standard coach Guy Luzon to invest in new players. Standard lost several key players, but these have not replaced properly yet. The Reds did qualify in Europe in between, but desperately need new players ahead of the Champions League confrontation with Zenith St Petersburg, and in general, to boost their title chances in the league.